Sideways Sammy

Coventry City returned to winning ways in emphatic fashion with a heavy win over a woeful Rotherham United side.

The Millers must have known it was not to be their night to end a 30-game winless streak on the road right from the moment Viktor Johansson in their goal dropped a routine catch onto the head of Ellis Simms to open the scoring. Once Joel Latibeaudiere nodded in from a corner-kick just over 15 minutes later, the only question was how many more would the Sky Blues score.

Simms grabbed two more before half-time, first, sweeping in after a swift counter-attack led to a loose ball in the box, then smashing home confidently from outside the area after Haji Wright cushioned the ball into his direction. It was a second hat-trick in eight days for a striker who had struggled to convince for much of this campaign, however, in both instances, he faced opposition considerably below the standard he faces week-in, week-out in the Championship.

The rest of the game was a non-contest as Coventry City took a breather in the second-half and Rotherham United tried their hardest not to concede any more goals. However, the Millers presented a final gift to the home side at the CBS Arena when a sloppy pass from Sam Clucas in second-half stoppage time was seized upon by Milan van Ewijk to drive forward and put in a ball into the box that found its way to Fabio Tavares to finish to make it five.

The Easiest Game Of The Season

It started with Viktor Johansson dropping the ball under no pressure for Ellis Simms to head in from centimetres out, and ended with a tired pass in midfield that allowed Milan van Ewijk to cross for Fabio Tavares to score on what was a truly inept night of defending from Rotherham United. They have won just three games all season and hadn’t won away in thirty matches, they demonstrated just why they are on track to be one of the worst ever Championship teams as they literally handed the points to a Coventry City side that didn’t need to get out of second gear.

For that reason, it is very hard to read too much into this performance. Rotherham United not only made mistakes, not only showed little fight but were poorly set up. A team with little quality, they left bewilderingly themselves wide open without much attempt to press or cause the home side any problems further up the pitch. They left the door open for Coventry City, invited them in, hung up their coats and served up a full course midweek meal. It was one of the easiest wins the Sky Blues have had over the past decade.

While there were some decent individual performances, Coventry City were content to play at a half-pace for much of this game, waiting for the gaps to open up that Rotherham United consistently presented them. The 3-4-1-2 shape with the wing-backs playing somewhat cautiously and Kasey Palmer pushed high up the pitch left big gaps in midfield that made it difficult to control possession, occasionally even offering overloads for Rotherham to exploit had they the wherewithal, but the opposition simply weren’t good enough to make anything of the Sky Blues’ stand-offish approach.

Is this something to be concerned about heading into games against better teams than Rotherham United (I.e. any other Championship team)? Was it a case of Coventry City’s simply not needing to play well against an opponent all too willing to gift them goals? That will only become apparent over future games. This should act as a confidence boost, but there may be as little to read into this result as was the same scoreline last week against a part-time Maidstone United team.

The Developing Ellis Simms-Haji Wright Partnership

While the analysis of this game has to be caveated by the utter ineptitude of the opposition, it was an excellent night for Ellis Simms as he got a frustrating performance against West Bromwich Albion out of his system and an encouraging one for Haji Wright too as he made himself a nuisance in a central striking role for perhaps the first time in a Coventry City shirt.

Back to Rotherham United one last time, they made things easy for Wright and Simms in Coventry Ciry’s attack by pushing their midfield and wing-backs so far forward that it constantly left the duo in one against ones versus a scrambling back-line. Early on in the game, some of Wright and Simms’ heavy touches got away from them to kill attacks, but as their confidence improved, so did their touches and willingness to drive directly at the opposing defence. Things were made easy for them, but they took the cue to take advantage of the mismatch between themselves and the Millers’ back-line.

An issue for periods of this season has been that Ellis Simms and Haji Wright were signed for big money without much of a sense of whether they could operate as strike partnership. Both players look uncomfortable doing the physical, back-to-goal work that would help the other one of them operate in their preferred manner of running in behind, which has made them an awkward partnership as it has meant neither have been involved in the game and hamstrung the team as a result. Here, both Simms and Wright showed the willingness and ability to do the work to get the other in areas from which they could threaten.

The third and fourth goals were highly promising in regard to a Wright-Simms strike partnership developing. For the third, Simms gets the attack going with his back to goal and plays a quick ball out for Haji Wright to run onto. While the ball itself isn’t great, it enables Wright to float into a wide left position with space to run into, which has been where he’s done most of his best work this season, and he ties up a couple of defenders before the ball bounces to Simms to finish. For the fourth, it is Wright who plays the traditional centre-forward role of cushioning a cross into the box with his back turned, setting up Simms to smash home.

Both strikers showed here that they have the ability to both be involved in the build-up play, with Wright capable of running in behind and Simms able to play the poacher role pouncing on balls in the box. There are, inarguably, bigger tests to come that will deny the duo the wide open spaces to control the ball and drive at the opposing defence, but they played with the aggressiveness and confidence here that is exactly how they will threaten better opponents.

Room For Improvement

This was an easy win for Coventry City but the concern is that Rotherham United were so poor, it doesn’t really offer Mark Robins much to learn from heading into the business end of the campaign. The praise in this article has been heavily caveated as a result, and while this next section will look at areas for improvement, any criticism has to be taken with the pinch of salt that the game was simply not a contest from the fifth-minute onwards and that the Sky Blues played at a half-pace to conserve energy.

The manager stuck with three at the back for this game and while that saw the team keep a clean sheet, they weren’t really tested here against a Rotherham United side that just one shot on target. That one effort hinted at a possible area of weakness for this back three of Joel Latibeaudiere flanked by Bobby Thomas and Liam Kitching, with Latibeaudiere a touch slack in his marking of Jordan Hugill, allowing him to get behind the defence and lay the ball off for Peter Kioso to have a shot on goal. Albeit, that came during a performance where Latibeaudiere largely kept a good handle on the physical Hugill up top for the Millers.

The wider source of concern here was that the team were a touch passive for spells of this game. As mentioned earlier, with the wing-backs sitting deep and Kasey Palmer pushed so far forward, there was a lot of room in midfield for Rotherham United to knock the ball around and occasionally threaten overloads had they been able to switch the play quickly. That left Liam Kelly scrambling to cover gaps at times, with his lack of pace presenting opportunities for the opposition to drive directly at him.

As was seen against West Bromwich Albion last time out, the switch to a back three has made the team less able to press the opposition and has invited pressure as a result. Rotherham United were not good enough to take advantage of that here but some of the same danger signs were there nonetheless.

While there should be confidence taken from the comfortable nature of this result, it might be a mistake to presume that this resolves any of the recent issues Coventry City have. Although, it could also be true that the Sky Blues didn’t need to put in the running here to cover some of their deficiencies because they simply didn’t need to. The real test is against any other team in this division, rather than the one that proved here why they are cut adrift at the bottom by a considerable distance.